Cynthia Erivo is an actress I’ve been watching for a little while now. In terms of her career, she has done a little bit of everything. Harriet was her breakout role back in 2019 but she’s been in some great television shows, The Outsider and Genius: Aretha. and some other memorable films like Bad Times at the El Royale and Widows the Steve McQueen film. She has proven she can sing and dance as well, with Wicked Pt 1 in her future. Drift is her latest film, and he does something a little different with this one.

Jacqueline (Cynthia Erivo) is a woman who is as the title suggests a Drifter in Greece. She sneaks food when she can and lives in a cave adjacent to a beach. She washes her clothes in the saltwater that washes up on shore. Occasionally she moves around but she has started to get noticed by the locals because she wears the same, gray,  tee shirt and blue jean skirt, all the time. While hanging out at some ruins looking out on a mountain she befriends a tour guide Callie (Alia Shawkat).  She’s skeptical of her but eventually comes around and embraces their friendship.

Anthony Chen, the director, creates a solitary story of this woman with a hidden past. There is a series of flashbacks that delve deeper into her family in Africa and how she has nightmares about what happened to them. Her family is everything to her but she had to grow up fast ever since she’s been away from them and on her own. She has developed some pretty good survival skills. Trusting her instincts is one of her best attributes. Erivo has proven she can do anything but this film is a little outside her comfort zone. She is on screen in every scene, so there is nowhere to hide. That’s a good thing because she commands the screen with every scene she’s in.

There is a subplot in this film that shows a story about the world that most people don’t know much about. In Africa, there are coos all the time, and Kings and Queens and various leaders are constantly overthrown by zealots and despots trying to make a name for themselves.  Men like Edi Amin come to mind. He was a dictator who killed his own people. In this film, the people doing the taking over are mostly kids. Who works for the so-called man in charge?

With this film being in Greece it features some impressive scenery. Many vistas of the Mediterranean Sea, various beaches, and landscapes of this beautiful country are littered throughout. The director mixes all these scenes in with the main story and Erivo who commands the majority of the screen time. The beautiful scenery is like the opposite of the ugly situation Erivo’s character finds herself in for most of the film. That’s a good creative touch for the director.

Drift is a good movie with a good performance from its star Cynthia Erivo. She commands the screen in every scene she’s in but in a subtle way. She is a bit understated in this role but still does a solid job. Not as great a job as her role in Harriet but still very good. The cinematography is very good though. When you have a beautiful place like Greece to film, how can it not be? This movie has some interesting story beats but didn’t blow me away. It’s still worth a watch though.

3 ½ stars

Dan Skip. Allen